XPost: rec.aviation.military, soc.history.war.misc   
   From: p_stickney@verizon.net   
      
   On Tue, 18 Apr 2023 12:54:43 +0100, Keith Willshaw wrote:   
      
   > On 17/04/2023 20:24, Stephen Harding wrote:   
   >> I spent quite a bit of time on Soviet fishing trawlers during the late   
   >> 1970's and early 80's.  Their sonar, fishing net transducers and radios   
   >> were really old school.  Even still vacuum tubes in some gear.  The   
   >> good stuff went to the Soviet military.   
   >>   
   >> But while at UMass Computer Science Department, we had some really top   
   >> notch Russian doctoral and post-doctoral students (one of whom is now a   
   >> professor at a school in England I believe).  This was of course after   
   >> the demise of the USSR.   
   >>   
   >> The Russians have always had top notch theoreticians, especially in   
   >> mathematics, physics, cosmology and computer science and more.  Someone   
   >> said the Russians could do great theory because they didn't have the   
   >> infrastructure to do the engineering that might come from such   
   >> theoretical research.  Don't know if that is really true.   
   >>   
   >> I was always more impressed with Russian (Soviet) resolve more than   
   >> anything.  "Keeps a licking and keeps on ticking" seemed to say it all.   
   >>   
   >> Which makes me wary of confidently writing off the Russian effort in   
   >> Ukraine!   
   >>   
   >>   
   > The problem with the Russian Army is a combination of their old   
   > weakness, the lack of a professional NCO corps and the new regime which   
   > is basically a kleptocracy. The Russian military does have NCO's but   
   > their role is basically just to ensure the rank and file does as they   
   > are told.   
   >   
   > In the 1980's I did a lot of work with the USSR in the oil and gas   
   > industry, their main problem was a system which was very hierarchical   
   > and positively discouraged initiative but was at least honest.   
      
   It's not like things were better in the Soviet Days - One of my people   
   when I was running part of a project for the U.S. Navy has been the Air   
   Warfare Officer for the Theodore Roosevelt's Carrier Battle Group.  His   
   ship was monitoring Soviet exercises in the Med, including the Kirov and   
   the Slava (Later renamed Moskva) ended up in a port visit for repairs at   
   teh same time that he was there. (May have been Alexandria) - He noted   
   that not only was it the sorriest looking ship he'd ever encountered -   
   more rust than paint - but that not two sailors wore the same uniform.   
   They were all in a mix-and-mach of whatever was in the stores and sort of   
   fit.  He also noted that they had a lot of electronic deconfliction   
   problems - various radars tuned so that they overlapped with another   
   system, both same-ship and withing their flotilla.  This led, during their   
   exercises, to a lot of intra-ship radio comms screaming about how they   
   couldn't tell whose blips were whose - as they picked up radar returns   
   from the other ship's transmissions.   
   I don't think it got better.   
   I've seen Russian newsreel film of the Black Gang on Moskva, at the engine   
   control consoles - shorts and no shirts.  Any casualty, fire or steam   
   leak, and those guys are a crispy critter or a pink mist.   
   Keith, given what you've noticed with Russian Industrial Culture, and the   
   general attitude of "My Carrot, Your Stick"m I have to wonder how many of   
   their gas line and factory explosions, and transport accidents are   
   deliberate action, or business as usual.   
      
   --   
   Peter Stickney   
   Java Man knew nothing about coffee   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)